Copyright American Psychological Association

It is rare to find a book that offers the reader a seamless, yet powerful, integration
of Black liberation theory; intersectional feminism; and illustrations of the
stark, intergenerational, and persistent effects of the sexual assaults that have
been perpetrated on Black women’s bodies from the moment they were
hauled onto slave ships 400 years ago. Yet The Cultural Betrayal of Black Women
and Girls: A Black Feminist Approach to Healing From Sexual Abuse does all of
these things, and eloquently. Any therapist who works with women of African
descent, any woman of African descent healing from trauma, any ally to these
women, should be reading this book, because it is transformative, and what
Jennifer Gómez has to say matters.
—Laura S. Brown, PhD, ABPP, independent intersectional feminist practice,
Seattle, WA

In The Cultural Betrayal of Black Women and Girls: A Black Feminist Approach
to Healing From Sexual Abuse, Jennifer M. Gómez, PhD, brilliantly articulates
a widely known phenomenon that often goes unnamed—that the trauma
following sexual abuse is exacerbated when those we trust, those from our own
cultural group, are our perpetrators. Dr. Gómez reviews how cultural betrayal
sexual trauma complicates nearly every part of surviving sexual abuse, from
our freedom to seek safety from family members, our church homes, or the
legal system to our ability to seek medical and therapeutic care even decades
after the abuse has ended. This book is a must-read for anyone who works
with Black women and girls who have experienced sexual trauma and wants
to offer culturally competent trauma therapy that contributes to our holistic
healing. Equally important, Black survivors of cultural betrayal sexual trauma
will benefit from this book, seeing the complexity of their abuse and their pain
named and validated. Finally, Dr. Gómez encourages all of us to think beyond
the individual to consider how each and every one of us can strive for radical
healing in our communities and in the world.
—NiCole T. Buchanan, PhD, Professor of Psychology, Michigan State
University, East Lansing, MI; Fellow of the Association for Psychological
Science and the American Psychological Association
 Copyright American Psychological Association

Contents

Foreword: A Love Song for Black Women and Girl Survivors of Sexual Abuse—
Thema Bryant ix
Preface xi
Acknowledgments xv

1. What’s Racism Got to Do With It? Black Women and Girls,

Sexual Abuse, and Liberation 3
2. Black Women and Girls: Racism and Intersectional Oppression 21
3. The “Rape Problem” and Secondary Marginalization Against
Black Women and Girls 35
4. Cultural Betrayal Trauma Theory: Framework, Evidence,
and Future Directions 47
5. Culturally Competent Trauma Therapy: Holistic Healing 77
6. Radical Healing in the Black Community 113
7. Institutional Courage to Change the World 133

Conclusion: What Does It All Mean? From Micro- to Macrolevel Change 169
References 177
Index 217
About the Author 235

vii
 Copyright American Psychological Association

1 WHAT’S RACISM GOT TO DO

WITH IT?
Black Women and Girls, Sexual Abuse, and
Liberation

CHAPTER AT A GLANCE
In this chapter, I provide the landscape for the book: defining cultural
betrayal trauma theory, detailing the scope and format of the book, providing
a Black feminist primer to aid readers in how to get the most from the book,
and stating my goals for both the book and society.

The colored woman of today occupies . . . a unique position in this country. . . .

She is confronted by both a woman question and a race problem, and is as yet
an unknown or unacknowledged factor in both.
—Anna Julia Cooper, 1892, As Cited In K. Taylor, 2017, p. 5

It is telling that a book written by a Black woman in the 21st century could
open with another Black woman’s quote from the 1800s: a quote that remains
frighteningly poignant and disturbingly true in many ways. Perhaps because

https://doi.org/10.1037/0000362-001
The Cultural Betrayal of Black Women and Girls: A Black Feminist Approach to Healing
From Sexual Abuse, by J. M. Gómez
Copyright © 2023 by the American Psychological Association. All rights reserved.

3
 Copyright American Psychological Association

4 • The Cultural Betrayal of Black Women and Girls

of the resonance in the above quote by Anna Julia Cooper, I have created this
book as an odyssey that I hope can contribute to actual, tangible, individual,
interpersonal, cultural, and structural positive change in the lives of Black
women and girls. My ambitious anchor is that everyone needs to know every-
thing, meaning that trauma researchers and clinicians need to understand
structural racism, intersectional oppression, and the context of Black women
and girls being erased from the “rape problem” discourse in the Black com-
munity. Race scholars need to know about cultural betrayal, trauma, abuse,
violence, and mental health. The clinicians need grounding in the trauma, race,
and Black feminist research while knowing about the White supremacy within
the psychology profession and, relatedly, the need for radical healing within
and outside of formal therapy. The dominant and mainstream researchers need
to grasp the importance of Black feminist theorizing, as well as the empirical
research that can stem from such theorizing. Change agents, which we all should
be, need to be knowledgeable of and empowered by institutional courage
(Freyd, 2014b), with actionable steps for making structural, systemic, and
lasting societal change. Most important, the Black women and girls who do
and do not occupy the aforementioned professional positions need to have
aspects of themselves reflected in this work—a mirror of the intersectional
oppression, the violence, and the pain, right alongside the self-determination,
the self-valuation (Collins, 1991/2000), the hope, and the freedom that we as
Black women and girls can and often do possess.
In this introduction chapter, I first provide the societal landscape of the
present time, and then I define cultural betrayal trauma theory (CBTT). Next,
I discuss the contextual predicaments of conducting CBTT research within
the context of structural inequalities. Following that, I provide the scope
and format of the book, with descriptions of each chapter. I then detail how
readers can get the most out of the current book by providing a primer on
Black feminist tradition and related ideologies, including the role of premises
and emotionality in this work. Finally, I conclude with thoughts on my goals
for both the book itself and the world in which we live.

SOCIETAL LANDSCAPE

We are living in contradictory realities. (Laurence Ralph, personal communi-

cation, 2022)

Our current reality is filled with absurdity of the worst kind (P. J. Williams
et al., 2021). With Whiteness being a set of power relations (Mills, 1997),
the combined structural and direct harm of COVID-19 and anti-Black violence
 Copyright American Psychological Association

What’s Racism Got to Do With It? • 5

(e.g., Cokley et al., 2022; Poteat et al., 2020) manifests in at least two distinct
ways. First, there is repetitive, persistent, and arrogant everyday discrimina-
tion (McClelland et al., 2016) that many White people—particularly those
with additional institutional power—often engage in by denying racism
while perpetrating the same individually and structurally. The epistemic vio-
lence (e.g., Dotson, 2011) associated with silencing marginalized individuals
is simultaneously deeply personal and truly systemic (R. L. Calcott, personal
communication, March 12, 2022). Second, the contemporary context includes
the disproportionate death of Black people from COVID-19 (Wrigley-Field, 2020),
government-sanctioned racist murder of Black people (Dreyer et al., 2020), and
ubiquitous dehumanization and degradation of the Black community (for a
discussion, see Gómez, 2022d).
Additionally hopeful, however, is the awareness and mobilization against
these societal ills (e.g., Dreyer et al., 2020; Fisher et al., 2017), including from
the American Psychological Association (APA) Council of Representatives
in their resolutions Apology to People of Color for APA’s Role in Promoting, Per-
petuating, and Failing to Challenge Racism, Racial Discrimination, and Human
Hierarchy in U.S. (APA, 2021a) and Role of Psychology and APA in Dismantling
Systemic Racism Against People of Color in U.S. (APA, 2021b). While these
statements were met with understandable mistrust (e.g., Association of Black
Psychologists, 2022), action within APA continues, with Black feminist trauma
psychologist Dr. Thema Bryant as the President (Tan, 2022). With that rec-
ognition and action, importantly, comes the possibility for change (Gómez &
Freyd, 2014).

INTRODUCTION TO CULTURAL BETRAYAL TRAUMA THEORY

A theory in the flesh means one where the physical realities of our lives—our
skin color, the land or concrete we grew up on, our sexual longings—all fuse
to create a politic born out of necessity. (Gloria Anzaldúa and Cherríe Moraga,
1981, p. 23)

Created, expanded upon, and tested within societal inequalities, CBTT

(e.g., Gómez, 2012, 2019c; Chapter 4, this volume) provides a theoretical
anchoring for the current book. Based on scholarship, research, and activism
within Black feminism (e.g., Collins, 1991/2000), structural racism (e.g., Mills,
1997), and intersectional oppression (Combahee River Collective, 1977, as
cited in K. Taylor, 2017; Crenshaw, 1991; Chapter 3), I specifically created
CBTT with Black people in mind (Gómez, n.d.-a, n.d.-b, 2015b, 2015e, 2016,
2018, 2019b, 2019c, 2019i, 2019k, 2022a; Gómez & Freyd, 2019; Gómez &
Gobin, 2020a, 2020b, 2022; Gómez & Johnson, 2022; McDaniel et al.,
 Copyright American Psychological Association

6 • The Cultural Betrayal of Black Women and Girls

2022), though this framework has and can be used in culturally congruent
ways with other marginalized populations (e.g., Gómez, 2017, 2019a, 2019e,
2019j, 2019k, 2021a, 2021b, 2021d; Gómez & Freyd, 2018; Howard Valdivia
et al., 2022).
According to CBTT in reference to the Black community (e.g., Gómez &
Gobin, 2020a), anti-Black racism engenders (intra)cultural trust, or solidarity,
within the Black community. As such, abuse perpetrated by a Black person
against another Black person includes a cultural betrayal because it is a
violation of this (intra)cultural trust. This abuse, known as cultural betrayal
trauma, is associated with abuse outcomes, such as dissociation, and cultural
outcomes, such as internalized prejudice. Moreover, (intra)cultural pressure—
including violent silencing as a cultural mandate to not disclose cultural
betrayal trauma—further harms survivors.
In the current book, I focus specifically on cultural betrayal sexual trauma,
or sexual abuse within the Black community. Though cultural betrayal sexual
trauma occurs across genders (e.g., Gómez & Johnson, 2022), for brevity and
to centralize Black women and girls, the term cultural betrayal sexual trauma
in the current book refers only to Black male–perpetrated sexual abuse against
Black women and girls. As such, this book can serve as a companion to work
that centralizes the experiences of Black people of other genders.

THE MEANING OF CBTT

Black women’s oppression made them more open to the possibilities of radical
politics and activism. (Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, 2017, p. 8)

In CBTT, I make complexity the subject, allowing for layered harms to be

identified and addressed. As a basis for research, CBTT is a kind of radical
scholarly activism (Gómez, in press) against both raceless, contextual-less work
and the scientific racism predicated upon dehumanizing Black people across
genders as genetically and socially inferior (e.g., Washington, 2006; Winston,
2020). As such, CBTT itself is an act of self-determination in which I, a Black
woman, centralize Black women and girls through lenses of oppression, abuse,
vulnerability, strength, and hope.
CBTT provides a framework for understanding Black women and girl sur-
vivors of cultural betrayal sexual trauma, including the roles of cultural and
societal contexts. For example, with CBTT, we can systematically investigate
how cultural betrayal sexual trauma for Black women and girls can result in
protecting the perpetrator(s) in the aftermath of the abuse by not reporting
 Copyright American Psychological Association

What’s Racism Got to Do With It? • 7

to the police (e.g., Slatton & Richard, 2020). CBTT additionally grapples with
deeply entrenched myths and erasure of Black women and girl survivors due
to both intersectional oppression (e.g., racism and sexism; Chapter 2) from
the dominant society (e.g., Davis, 1985; Gómez, 2019k; McGuire, 2010) and
secondary marginalization within the Black community (C. J. Cohen, 2009;
Chapter 3).
CBTT also amplifies the need to be in solidarity with Black men as our
brethren, while often tolerating the costs of privileging Black men as the pri-
mary victims of racism (Combahee River Collective, 1977, as cited in K. Taylor,
2017). Moreover, CBTT details the (intra)cultural trust and support that
make our Black lives so connectedly rich and giving. With mind and heart
centering on the humanity of Black women and girls, CBTT helps determine
what research questions to investigate (e.g., internalized prejudice as an
outcome of trauma), what questions to avoid (e.g., no White comparison
groups), what harm to tackle clinically (e.g., beyond fear present during
the abuse), what context to pull from (e.g., structural racism, intersectional
oppression, [intra]cultural pressure), and what levels of intervention to employ
(individual, group, community, structural).

PREDICAMENTS

By naming sexist oppression . . . it would appear that we would have to identify as

threatening a group we have heretofore assumed to be our allies: Black men. . . .
If we cannot entertain the idea that some [Black] men are the enemy . . . then we
will never be able to figure out all the reasons why, for example, we are . . . raped
by our neighbors. (Barbara Smith, “Notes for Yet Another Paper on Black Fem-
inism, or, Will the Real Enemy Please Stand Up?” as cited in hooks, 1984/2015,
p. 76)

CBTT, and by extension this book, is situated within this predicament of

wanting and needing solidarity within and across the Black community while
acknowledging the cultural betrayal sexual trauma and the accompanied vio-
lent silencing that tear us apart from our community and ourselves. Within
societal reckonings against anti-Black racism (e.g., Black Lives Matter Global
Foundation Network, Inc., n.d.) and sexist sexual abuse (#MeToo; e.g.,
Burke, 2021), I write this book from under the spotlight of high-profile
perpetrators of cultural betrayal sexual trauma (e.g., R. Kelly [Gómez, 2019k];
Russell Simmons [Gómez & Gobin, 2020b]) and courageous Black women
survivors (@RapedAtSpelman as cited in Gómez, 2016; Dick & Ziering, 2020;
A. Hill, 1997; Feminist Campus Team, 2017).
 Copyright American Psychological Association

8 • The Cultural Betrayal of Black Women and Girls

WHITE SUPREMACY, BLACK FEMINISM, AND THE BOOK

Racism has become an accepted topic in feminist discussions not as a result of

black women calling attention to it (this was done at the very onset of the move-
ment), but as a result of white female input validating such discussions, a process
which is indicative of how racism works. (bell hooks, 1984/2015, p. 52)

I experience dis-ease knowing that Whiteness has given validity to the

Black experiences I describe in this book. What began 10 years ago as cease-
less rejections has turned into exaltation in many elite, and often tightly
guarded, spaces. As I share this work across the United States and abroad,
I understand that the same racism and intersectional oppression that is pres-
ently granting credence to this work also maintains White domination. In
addition to the within-group focus, my critical consciousness of the White
supremacist world in which I live continues to inform my work with CBTT
and this book. In this way, my own identity politics, as defined by Black femi-
nists (e.g., the Combahee River Collective, 1977, as cited in K. Taylor, 2017),
has provided me with a way to examine my own experiences and that of my
Black sisters through research, scholarship, clinical work, and activism. As
such, I have written this book as an exercise in disrupting my own internal-
ized inclination to cater to the White Read (Bowleg, 2021; Chapter 5). The
White Read is an interpretation of how a homogenous White audience will
interpret one’s own writing. Catering to the White Read distorts the work
by privileging a homogenous White population as both the primary and the
most important audience of one’s own work. Instead, I center Black women,
girls, and our perspectives in ways that neither ask permission of Whiteness
nor run comparisons with Whiteness to justify our existence and legitimacy.
Additionally in this book, I am engaging in a cultural shift in dominant
psychology, from rote memorization to critical thinking that complicates con-
structs as opposed to providing easy answers. In the tradition of Ladson-Billings
(2021; Chapter 5), this book builds upon critical theoretical and empirical
research that promotes asking different questions and thus sparking different
solutions from across disciplines, including psychology, Black feminist studies,
law, social work, sociology, philosophy, political science, anthropology, and
women and gender studies.
Importantly, I conceptualize the work of this book as a starting place, not
a seminal conclusion. Though I have tried to create a work with equality
and equity in process and outcome (Cummings, 2021a; Chapter 7), I have
no doubt that in the years following publication, I will reread, rethink, reassess,
and reframe concepts I have laid out here. As lifelong learners, I invite readers
to do the same. Critical interrogation that furthers our lives and our work
 Copyright American Psychological Association

What’s Racism Got to Do With It? • 9

requires taking what is known and building on it for a better, brighter, more
equitable future.

SCOPE AND FORMAT OF THE BOOK

Sexism as a system of domination is institutionalized, but it has never deter-

mined in an absolute way the fate of all women in this society. (bell hooks,
1984/2015, p. 5)

The primary audience for this book is academic, research, and clinical
psychologists, as well as researchers and clinicians from social work, sociology,
gender and feminist studies, public health, psychiatry, anthropology, Africana
studies, and other allied professionals in fields interested in understanding the
impact of cultural betrayal sexual trauma against Black women and girls within
the context of racism and intersectional oppression. The secondary audience
includes graduate and undergraduate students involved in academic, research,
and/or clinical training in psychology, social work, psychiatry, and allied
fields (see primary audience disciplines above). Additional audiences include
Black women and girls who have experienced cultural betrayal sexual trauma;
Black people who want to contribute to shared community healing across
genders; people who have been sexually victimized who are not Black women
or girls; anyone who wants to better understand and support Black women
and girls who have been sexually victimized; and race, feminist, and other
activists engaged in fights for societal equality related to anti-Black racism,
sexism, intersectional oppression, and violence against women and girls.

Chapter Overview
Offering subordinate groups new knowledge about their own experiences can
be empowering. But revealing new ways of knowing that allow subordinate
groups to define their own reality has far greater implications. (Patricia Hill
Collins, 1991/2000, p. 222)

Each chapter opens with a Chapter at a Glance section that provides a

brief statement of the scope of the chapter, followed by an introductory
paragraph (a) framing the chapter. Next, the critical visioning section relays
the background and CBTT lens for a tension engendered by White supremacy
that is germane to one or more topics of the chapter; after that, my self-reflexive
critical visioning on the tension is a pedagogical tool that provides examples
of my positionality, standpoint (e.g., Collins, 1986, 1991/2000), and under-
lying premises of the chapter, as well as the complexity of the thought process
endemic in my theoretical, empirical, and clinical work with Black women
 Copyright American Psychological Association

10 • The Cultural Betrayal of Black Women and Girls

and girls. Following detailing basic and/or applied theoretical and empir-
ical research and scholarship, Chapters 2, 4, 5, 6, and 7 include sections with
examples of what the content of the chapter could actually be like in reality.
This section serves to ground each chapter in Black women and girls’
humanity while providing tangible skills to readers. To protect their privacy,
I use pseudonyms in all true stories from real people. Lastly, Chapters 2,
3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 each close with summary bullet points that highlight the
chapter’s main takeaway messages. All in all, I have created each chapter to
have practical implications and tangible knowledge that is grounded in the
literature reviewed and described.
As in the current introduction chapter, quotes are peppered throughout
the book to serve as guideposts—orienting readers to upcoming content,
situating the work within such content, and highlighting brilliant scholars and
activists. In using these quotes to frame my writing, I am rejecting a singular,
individualization of my work in favor of contextualizing my contributions
within the past and present collective We (Collins, 1991/2000). This rhetor-
ical strategy can illustrate how my scholarly expertise and outsider-within
stance (Collins, 1991/2000) are in connection with others’ work and activism
that has been done across disciplines, contexts, and time periods. Using these
quotes additionally provides a meta-message for the whole book: The concepts
I am discussing and naming, such as cultural betrayal, are placed within and
atop more than 150 years of Black women’s (and some others’) scholarship
and activism; as such, we can call upon the strength, wisdom, perseverance,
soul, spirit, and heart of our lineage.
Though they each could be read as stand-alone chapters based on the
interest of the reader, I have written the book with each chapter building on the
prior content. I have also deliberately woven an arc that begins with structural
oppression and violence, extends through individual and interpersonal healing,
and ends with structural change, freedom, and liberation through institu-
tional courage (Freyd, 2014b). Specifically, critical race perspectives on racism
(Chapter 2) explain why the rape problem in the Black community (Chapter 3)
is typically understood as that of White women’s false accusations against
Black men and boys. The Black feminist concept of intersectional oppression
(Chapter 2) and secondary marginalization (Cohen, 2009; Chapter 3) further
elucidates how Black males’ perpetration of sexual abuse against Black women
and girls is occluded from dominant White feminist and antiracist movements.
Built within this multifaceted context, CBTT provides a scientifically testable
framework for examining cultural betrayal sexual trauma, including community
response to (intra)cultural pressure in the form of violent silencing—a theme
of the book (Chapter 4). Taken together, the basic research from Chapters 2
to 4 inform culturally competent trauma therapy while indicting the White
 Copyright American Psychological Association

What’s Racism Got to Do With It? • 11

supremacy within the medical model (Chapter 5). Understanding that healing
cannot and should not ever be relegated to the confines of the four walls of
therapy, radical healing that promotes critical consciousness, hope, freedom,
and liberation is possible for Black women and girl survivors of cultural betrayal
sexual trauma, as well as Black families and communities (Chapter 6). The
entire book culminates in furthering us toward a truly peaceful and equi-
table world through specific structural healing and change through institu-
tional courage (Freyd, 2018; Chapter 7). The Conclusion provides a capstone
of lessons learned from the book.
Fundamentally, the framing of the book makes explicit links between the
harmful aspects of Black women’s and girls’ context—racism, intersectional
oppression, secondary marginalization (C. J. Cohen, 2009), cultural betrayal
sexual trauma, (intra)cultural pressure, and violent silencing (e.g., Gómez,
2019c; current book)—and levels of healing—individual, interpersonal, and
structural (Figure 1.1). This is distinct from dominant approaches in psy-
chology that conceptualize sexual abuse as an individual harm that requires
individual-level intervention for survivors. Conversely, in addition to individual
healing, this book directly names and targets the implicated contextual harms
to engender cultural, institutional, and structural change. This shift in focus

FIGURE 1.1. Centering Black Women and Girls: Individual, Interpersonal, and
Structural Healing

Interpersonal Structural Individual

Healing Healing Healing

Black Institutional Culturally

Radical Feminist Courage 5 Competent
Healing1 Thought 4 Trauma Freewriting
Systems Therapy
Emotional Change
Emancipation—Inspired Posttraumatic
Circles 2 Black Growth
Women/Girls
(Intra)Cultural
Pressure 3 Racism6 Cultural Betrayal
Violent Silencing 3 Intersectional Oppression7 Sexual Trauma3
Secondary Marginalization8

1
e.g., French et al., 2020 ©Jennifer M. Gómez, 2022 5
Freyd, 2018
2
Grills, 2013 e.g., Mills, 1997
6

3
Gómez, 2012–2023 7
e.g., Combahee River Collective, 1977
4
e.g., Collins, 1991 a
Cohen, 2009

Note. Copyright 2022 by J. M. Gómez. Reprinted with permission.

 Copyright American Psychological Association

12 • The Cultural Betrayal of Black Women and Girls

can promote radical transformation into a more peaceful and equitable world
for Black women and girls.

Chapter by Chapter
Black women’s experiences cannot be reduced to either race or gender but have
to be understood on their own terms. (Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, 2017, p. 2)

In Chapter 2, “Black Women and Girls: Racism and Intersectional Oppres-

sion,” my critical visioning centers on understanding how inequality has
mani­fested in Black women-led the Black Lives Matter (Black Lives Matter
Foundation, Inc., n.d.) and #MeToo (Burke, 2021) movements. Next, I use Mills’s
(1997) theory of a “racial contract” as foundational to understanding anti-Black
racism, including White supremacy and structural racism. Then, I pull from
Black feminist scholar and activist work on intersectional oppression (e.g.,
Combahee River Collective, 1977, as cited in K. Taylor, 2017; Davis, 1985), with
a focus on Crenshaw’s (1991) theories of structural, political, and representa-
tional intersectionality. Based on Cole’s (2009) and Grzanka’s (2020a) work,
I then detail how intersectionality can be incorporated into the field of
psychology. I close with an example of political intersectionality (Crenshaw,
1991) in antiracism and anti-sexual violence initiatives on college campuses.
The goal of this chapter is to provide an accessible foundation of the multiple
and oft-interlocking systems of oppression against Black people.
In Chapter 3, “The ‘Rape Problem’ and Secondary Marginalization Against
Black Women and Girls,” I begin with critical visioning regarding the diversity
within the population of Black women and girls in the United States. Next,
I use C. J. Cohen’s (2009) theory of secondary marginalization to situate Black
women and girls’ social location in the Black community as one of additional
marginalization compared to that of Black men. Then, I explain how sexual
abuse is a manifestation of intersectional oppression through understanding
the context of the “rape problem” in the Black community being perceived as
White women’s false accusations against Black men and boys. This framing
erases Black women and girls and their experiences of sexual abuse in the
Black community. Finally, I review the literature on the definition, prevalence,
and outcomes of sexual abuse for Black women and girls, with attempts of
specifications for those additionally marginalized—Black trans*women, Black
immigrant women, Black Latinas, Black Muslim women, and Black women
who are incarcerated. Of note, Chapter 3 is the only chapter without a What
This Can Actually Look Like section because sexual abuse is further delineated
in the following chapter on CBTT.
In Chapter 4, “Cultural Betrayal Trauma Theory: Framework, Evidence,
and Future Directions,” I open with critical visioning on how CBTT can be
 Copyright American Psychological Association

What’s Racism Got to Do With It? • 13

used as a tool of oppression against Black people. Next, I provide a brief

explanation of betrayal trauma theory (e.g., Freyd, 1996), followed by
a detailed description of CBTT, including the framework, definitions, and
examples of key constructs: (intra)cultural trust, cultural betrayal, cul-
tural betrayal trauma, (intra)cultural pressure, including violent silencing,
(intra)cultural support, abuse and cultural outcomes, and posttraumatic
growth. Next, I provide an explanation of the 10 postulates of CBTT, under
the three classes of premises, counterhypotheses, and outcomes. I then review
the general evidence across populations of CBTT, with a specific focus on the
findings within Black populations. Following detailing an example of cultural
betrayal sexual trauma for a Black female undergraduate, I delineate key
theoretical and methodological future directions for CBTT research. As such,
this chapter is likely the most empirically dense of the book.
In Chapter 5, “Culturally Competent Trauma Therapy: Holistic Healing,”
I engage in critical visioning regarding the potential of replacing the medical
model in conceptualizations of psychological distress while abolishing the
White Read (Bowleg, 2021). I then explicitly detail the humanity of Black
women and girls, alongside our therapeutic responsibility to them as clients.
Next, I critique the medical model by interrogating its cultural premises, past
criticisms, and lackluster evidence, offering alternative conceptualizations of
mental health. Following detailing diverse outcomes of trauma (e.g., Bryant-
Davis, 2005), I explain individual and structural cultural competency in
therapy. Then, I highlight processes and practices of trauma therapy, including
working with and through emotional intensity and complexity; engaging in
critical self-reflection; collaborating with clients throughout the therapeutic
process; bearing witness to clients’ traumatic experiences, oppression, and
pain; holding hope for clients and their futures; centralizing individual and
structural cultural competency in therapy; and engaging in self-care. Next,
I review relational cultural theory (e.g., Miller, 1976) and the liberation
health framework (Belkin Martinez, 2014) as models for culturally compe-
tent trauma therapy for Black women and girls. From my work as a student
clinician, I close by providing clinical case examples on respecting client
autonomy, self-care, power-with collaboration with clients, client-perpetrated
discrimination in therapy, and social justice advocacy in clinical work. This
chapter is the most clinically rich of the book.
In Chapter 6, “Radical Healing in the Black Community,” I open my
critical visioning by engaging in self-reflexivity to discuss the threat of violent
silencing that I, and we, experience as Black women and girls who discuss
cultural betrayal sexual trauma. I then describe the psychological frame-
work of radical healing in communities of color (French et al., 2020). Next,
 Copyright American Psychological Association

14 • The Cultural Betrayal of Black Women and Girls

I discuss how radical healing can manifest on the individual level physio-
logically, emotionally, and behaviorally. In detailing radical healing in the
Black community, I draw on principles from restorative justice (e.g., Zehr,
2005), including discussing the role of hatred for the perpetrator(s) of
cultural betrayal sexual trauma. Then, I provide tips for how to respond well
to disclosure, discuss adapting Emotional Emancipation Circles (Grills, 2013;
Myers, 2013) for group-level healing from cultural betrayal sexual trauma
and (intra)cultural pressure, and explain the role of Black men in preventing
cultural betrayal sexual trauma. Next, I discuss sexist oppression and abuse
within the Black family and potential strategies for peaceful and equal family
life. Drawing upon Black classical musician Nina Simone (2008), I then query
how individuals can define what is free for themselves, followed by two exam-
ples from a Black woman survivor using a form of journaling known as free-
writing to self-discover freedom and liberation within themselves. With this
chapter speaking directly to Black women and girl survivors, it can be useful
for Black women researchers, clinicians, and students who have experienced
cultural betrayal sexual trauma. Additionally, professionals can incorporate
this chapter into their work with colleagues, research teams, clinical staff,
coalitions, students, and clients to provide institutional support for structured
reflection (Delker, 2019) and self-care (Gómez, 2019g).
In Chapter 7, “Institutional Courage to Change the World,” I privilege Black
feminist emotionality in institutional change work in my critical visioning
section. I then briefly review the literature on institutional betrayal (C. P. Smith
& Freyd, 2014), institutional cowardice (L. S. Brown, 2021), and institutional
courage (Freyd, 2014b), including adapting steps of institutional courage for
the benefit of Black women and girl survivors of intersectional oppression and
cultural betrayal sexual trauma. Next, I provide vignette examples of institu-
tional betrayal, institutional courage, and dreamstorming (see the definition in
the Preface) a world of peace and equality across health care, universities, and
the nonprofit sector. Then, I provide a real example of institutional courage in
community–lawyer collaborations on community benefits agreements (CBAs)
in the Los Angeles city redevelopment processes (Cummings, 2021a), including
lessons for academic, research, and clinical psychologists and allied profes-
sionals. Next, I describe four ways in which work toward institutional change
can be inhibited through White mediocrity, functions of inequality, difficulty
in measuring progress and success, and problems with power as domination.
I close with a capstone of perseverance for change that can transcend genera-
tions. Built upon the knowledge gained from the previous chapters, Chapter 7
focuses on the practical, tangible, and doable strategies for promoting structural
healing and systemic change across institutions and society.
 Copyright American Psychological Association

What’s Racism Got to Do With It? • 15

In the final chapter, “Conclusion: What Does It All Mean? From Micro- to
Macrolevel Change,” I give a grounded summary of humanizing Black women
and girls, with a final lesson on the need for freedom in the process of change.
I then provide a table of example solutions by chapter topics. I close with a
recognition of how the ubiquity of structural inequality, though overwhelming,
also gives us ample opportunity to succeed in change-making in every aspect of
our lives. As such, I use the conclusion chapter to highlight hope that structural
healing and societal change are in fact possible.

GETTING THE MOST OUT OF THE BOOK: A BLACK

FEMINIST PRIMER

Black women intellectuals have laid a vital analytical foundation for a distinc-
tive standpoint on self, community, and society, and, in doing so, created a
Black women’s intellectual tradition. . . . Black feminist thought—its definitions,
core themes, and epistemological significance—is fundamentally embedded in a
political context that has challenged its very right to exist. (Patricia Hill Collins,
1991/2000, pp. 5–6)

In the Black feminist tradition of privileging Black feminist perspectives

(Preface), my default audience for the book is Black women. Through reclaiming
the Black feminist intellectual tradition, I privilege Black women’s “indepen-
dent, viable, yet subjugated knowledge concerning our own subordination”
(Collins, 1991/2000, p. 13). This is contrasted with dominant mainstream
psychological work in which the implicit audience is rich and White, with all
cultural outsiders needing to do the labor of culturally translating the work for
ourselves. In this book, the onus of responsibility for any cultural translation
falls onto cultural outsiders, who will disproportionately be White people; I am
deliberately making this decision to centralize and validate the perspectives of
Black women and girls with neither apology nor second-class comparison with
White people and their worldviews.

Knowledge Validation Process

Epistemological choices about who to trust, what to believe, and why something
is true are not benign academic issues. Instead these concerns tap the fundamental
question of which versions of the truth will prevail and shape thought and
action. (Patricia Hill Collins, 1991/2000, pp. 202–203)

Collins (1991/2000) provided the groundwork for an Afrocentric feminist

epistemology in the knowledge validation process—that is, the process in
which purported knowledge becomes conceptualized as valid. This knowledge
 Copyright American Psychological Association

16 • The Cultural Betrayal of Black Women and Girls

validation process (Collins, 1991/2000) centers wisdom through experience,

as opposed to detached knowledge, such as memorizing decontextualized
facts, as “knowledge without wisdom is adequate for the powerful, but wisdom
is essential to the survival of the subordinate” (Collins, 1991/2000, p. 208).
This process has three tenets (Collins, 1991/2000): (a) the importance of dia-
logue and connectedness in knowledge generation; (b) the ethic of caring, also
known as “talking with the heart,” in which unique expression that can rep-
resent the group and appreciation of emotions belong in knowledge-sharing
(Chapter 7); and (c) the ethic of personal accountability, by where each person
is responsible for the information they put forth. These tenets are evident
throughout the book at both minute and metalevels, including my own stand-
point from lived experience (Preface), the use of quotes representing a con-
nectedness and dialogue with scholars and activists, the emotion-filled tone of
my writing, and my ethical accountability to myself, other Black women and
girl survivors, and my readers across races, genders, and experiences.
The process of knowledge validation I employ in the current book stems
from different epistemological assumptions than that of dominant psychology,
including the cultural assumptions and underlying premises upon which
the work is built. Historically, White, male, culturally dominated academic
spaces have subjugated, rejected, and/or attempted to erase Black feminist
scholars’ work stemming from Afrocentric feminist epistemologies (Collins,
1991/2000). In writing this book by using such epistemologies, I am trusting
that the dominant epistemic community, including APA, is ready for such
contributions in the mainstream.

Premises
Black feminist thought consists of specialized knowledge created by African-
American women which clarifies a standpoint of and for Black women. . . .
Black feminist thought encompasses theoretical interpretations of Black women’s
realities by those who live it. (Patricia Hill Collins, 1991, p. 22)

I use my standpoint as a Black woman in tandem with literature that under-

stands racism and interlocking oppressions as systemic and impactful. Spe-
cifically, themes of Black feminist standpoints are evident throughout the
current book and include the legacy of struggle, interlocking of oppressions
(e.g., racism and sexism), self-definition, Black activism, sexual politics,
and empowerment and resistance (Collins, 1991/2000). Moreover, ethical
trauma and inequality research requires knowledge of the theory and cultural
assumptions that such work depends on (Gómez, 2020a). In addition to
standpoint engendering such knowledge, those working from marginalized
perspectives may perhaps be more likely to understand the cultural premises
 Copyright American Psychological Association

What’s Racism Got to Do With It? • 17

underpinning their own work and that of the dominant field out of necessity
(Conclusion): The cultural translation required to understand and engage in
dominant work can further foment a deeper understanding of the problems
inherent in such work, as well as provide directions for their own work.

Worldview
To write the books one wants to read is both to point the direction of vision and,
at the same time, to follow it. (Alice Walker, 1983, p. 8)

In the current book, I am writing in ways where ideas, research, and

scholarship are not diametrically removed from real people and their lives
(hooks, 1989). Therefore, I am operating from premises related to Black
feminism, critical race perspectives, and nonpathologizing frameworks from
across disciplines. In addition to the above from Black feminism, I write from
the assumption that the humanity and perspectives of Black women and girls
carry inherent value and knowledge that should be privileged, particularly in
endeavors that include us (e.g., Combahee River Collective, 1977, as cited in
K. Taylor, 2017). Additionally from Black feminist (e.g., Collins, 1991/2000)
and critical race (e.g., Crenshaw et al., 1995) perspectives, I take as fact that
structural racism—as well as interlocking oppressions that include racism—
exists, while being endemic and impactful in each and every system, field,
structure, community, and individual in the United States. As such, there can
be no discussion of mental health (Chapter 5), for instance, without explicitly
incorporating the role that White supremacy historically and contemporarily
plays in every aspect of mental health’s conceptualization and its manifesta-
tion in society. Finally, my nonpathologizing stance indicates that the locus
of the harm resides in the abuse itself and the context of inequalities (e.g.,
Gómez, Lewis, et al., 2016). Therefore, Black women and girl survivors are
not pathological when they are suffering and/or thriving but rather reacting
naturally to the violent and oppressive circumstances they face. The job of
the reader includes using the above premises to legitimate the arguments I
make in the book while taking the opportunity to interrogate the similar and
different assumptions underlain in their own work.

Centering Black Feminist Perspectives

Rather than rejecting our marginality, Black women intellectuals can use our
outsider-within stance as a position of strength in building effective coalitions
and stimulating dialogue. (Patricia Hill Collins, 1991, p. 36)

I understand the harm of presenting disparate information as equally fac-

tual, given one side is critical of systems of domination and violence, while
the other refuses to acknowledge such harm exists at all, much less in those
 Copyright American Psychological Association

18 • The Cultural Betrayal of Black Women and Girls

systems (Conclusion). Therefore, I do not present views, such as race-neutral

paradigms versus critical race perspectives, as if they are simply different
ways of understanding humanity, each having its strengths and limitations.
I instead use critical transdisciplinary scholarship to name, legitimate, and
interrogate systems of oppression and abuse, in order to identify more equal
and equitable avenues of change. This rhetorical stance is not meant to make
cross-group coalitions more difficult. On the contrary, I hope this approach
provides the basis for freedom, equity, and equality within such coalitions by
beginning with foundational truth that engenders actual structural change
instead of nonperformative lip service (Ahmed, 2012). The reader’s role is to
engage in critical reflection (Chapter 5; for a review, see D’Cruz et al., 2007)
to continually reject White domination through centering and recentering,
as necessary, Black women and girls and our perspectives.

Emotionality
Struggle is rarely safe or pleasurable. (bell hooks, 1984/2015, p. 30)

As previously mentioned, an ethic of caring demands that emotions are

present in our work (e.g., Collins, 1991/2000; Chapter 7). Furthermore,
awareness of emotions provides feedback to ourselves, with emotion suppres-
sion rarely serving us fully. The potent content of the book may give rise to
feelings of discomfort, defensiveness, denial, overwhelmed-ness, insecurity,
and more. This can occur for multiple reasons, including that topics that are
often swept under the rug, such as rape and discrimination, are discussed
openly in ways that ground the harm done to human beings: ourselves, those
we love, and individuals we do not even know.
Additionally difficult is the breadth of the book, including the transdisci-
plinary scholarship on which I built the book, thus dismantling disciplinary
boundaries in favor of centering Black women and girls. With a goal of “everyone
knowing everything” as stated at the beginning of the current chapter, there
will necessarily be spaces of epistemological distance between what the reader
knows—including how they have come to know it—and what is being dis-
cussed. That reality can make certain chapters more appreciable and digestible
than others based on the worldview and disciplinary lens the reader begins
with. Furthermore, that reality can interrupt professional self-concepts of those
who consider themselves experts, while amplifying imposter syndrome for
those who already feel they are not good enough for academia.
My challenge to readers and myself is to continuously harken back to the
reasons for doing the work we do (for further discussion, see Gómez, 2020e).
 Copyright American Psychological Association

What’s Racism Got to Do With It? • 19

Our work is not about the arrogance or toxic insecurity that can reify our fragile
egos. Instead, for example, I myself do this work with and for those who
unfairly, unjustly, and repeatedly are discriminated against, oppressed,
abused, and violated, with the explicit goal of being able to contribute to healing
and fundamental change across all levels of society. Provided we remain
open to using critical epistemologies through critical thinking and reflection,
this book can get us closer to understanding the inequality contexts of Black
women and girls and what that means for our experience of cultural betrayal
sexual trauma, therapy, radical healing in the community, and institutional
change. Therefore, we must not allow uncomfortable emotions to stop us from
growing, learning, and contributing to a transformed world.

Transformation in Process
The white fathers told us: I think, therefore I am. The Black mother within each
of us—the poet—whispers in our dreams: I feel, therefore I can be free. Poetry
coins the language to express and charter this revolutionary demand, the imple-
mentation of that freedom. (Audre Lorde, 1984, p. 38)

Finally, amid the weight of the pain exposed in the current book, my want
for us is that we additionally experience poetry, validation, relief, hope,
motivation, joy, healing, connection, solidarity, strength, wisdom, freedom,
and even liberation. Not for nothing, our work moves mountains in people’s
lives—including our own—every single day. We must choose to experience
that uplifting reality over and again.

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

If any real efforts are to be made to free Black people of the constraints and
conditions that characterize racial subordination, then theories and strategies
purporting to reflect the Black community’s needs must include an analysis of
sexism and patriarchy. Similarly, [White] feminism must include an analysis of
race [racism]. (Kimberlé Crenshaw, 1989, p. 166)

My ultimate goal for this book is to use transdisciplinary research, scholar-

ship, and activism to paradoxically make the book itself obsolete. By providing
readers with a single book for interrogating anti-Black racism, intersectional
oppression, cultural betrayal sexual trauma, violent silencing, culturally com-
petent trauma therapy, radical healing in the Black community, and institu-
tional, structural, and societal change, my hope is to engender transformation
at individual, interpersonal, and structural levels. Given this goal will not be
 Copyright American Psychological Association

20 • The Cultural Betrayal of Black Women and Girls

achieved in my lifetime, I wish for the book to benefit Black women and girls
by providing a road map for understanding, addressing, preventing, and ulti-
mately healing from cultural betrayal sexual trauma.
My aspirations are grounded in the knowledge that large-scale change
occurs in one person, one soul, and one spirit at a time. As such, each and
every life matters (for a discussion, see Gómez in Asmelash, 2022). Given it
is people who cocreate policy, culture, and society, hope comes from so-called
small, individual wins because they foment large-scale policy, cultural, and
societal change. Needed for individual and structural change is to abolish
the apparent structural needs for violent silencing: the anti-Black racism,
the intersectional oppression, the secondary marginalization, the cultural
betrayal, and the sexist abuse. Therefore, in embarking upon the odyssey that
is the current book, what Robyn L. Gobin and I stated in the summer of 2020
remains true (Gómez & Gobin, 2020b, para. 29):
Today, in a time where Black solidarity is so desperately needed, we hope we
can all throw out the silent oath of secrecy we have and replace it with true
solidarity that, by definition, includes the needs of all of us—including Black
women and girls.